Jane's addiction
by PollyBunnyPeep
Summary: After Jane faces an ethylic coma, Trent and Daria try to find a way to help her with her alcoholism problem. What will happen during the process of recovery?
1. Jane's addition

**_Disclaimer: Daria and related characters are the property of Glenn Eichler and MTV/Viacom_**

**_Author's note:_ In this fanfic, Daria never starts a relationship with Tom after the kiss. It does happen but for the sake of their friendship Daria decides that being with Tom isn't convenient.**

"Jane, open the door, please" Daria begged.

She was standing in front of Jane's bedroom. Trent was standing behind her. He was the one who had called her not long ago, asking her to come over to help him, because Jane had locked herself in her room, said Trent, and he was worried something bad had happened to her.

It had all started when Jane was still at the art colony. After she had refused to sleep with Alison things were a little tense for a while. The thing with Alison had made her rethink some of her life experiences and points of view and, for some reason, this scared her. She started to mix up more in the parties the artists organized, to keep her mind away from that, and had started drinking, first only at the parties, and then by herself, drinking entire bottles of wine while painting or drawing, which made her pass out before finishing some of her projects. By what she called a minor incident she discovered how alcohol, thing she had never been interested in, could numb her from life and from the pain and worries she hid under a mask of sarcasm.

She knew that Daria praised her confidence and even she convinced herself that there was nothing wrong about herself, deep inside, where Daria or Trent would never look, she kept things for herself. She did have a little of hatred for her parents because of being absent her whole life and she wasn't as confident as she made herself look like. Pretending to be strong was, actually, what gave her strength.

Daria knocked the door one more time and called her best friend's name again.

Now, highly worried and desperate, Daria asked Trent for a key, a hammer, anything she could use to open the door. She had seen her best friend in bad situations due alcohol and she knew it was getting out of control. Jane told her not to worry but, how couldn't she worry if Jane was now locked in her room, not saying a single word when she was called?

Trent brought a hammer. When Daria tried to take it he moved it so she wouldn't and told her: "be careful".

She nodded and took the hammer. With as much calm as she could, which wasn't much, she hit the door knob until it broke and fell. She pushed the door and it opened, releasing a strong smell of alcohol. The room had cans and bottles or beer, wine and different types of alcohol all over the floor, staining some of Jane's artwork.

And then there she was, Jane Lane, lying on her bed, with a half-empty bottle next to her. She looked pale. Both Daria and Trent got scared by the scene, because Jane looked really bad. Daria ran towards her. Jane was breathing, but barely.

"Shit" Daria gasped ". Trent, call 911. I think the alcohol poisoned her".

Trent took a deep breath, trying to calm down, and ran downstairs. He grabbed the phone, called 911 and minutes after that an ambulance arrived Casa Lane and took Jane to the hospital.

"I'm going with Janey, Daria, are you coming?" he asked.

"Uh, no, go, Trent. I need a moment alone. I'll be there soon".

Daria stayed in Jane's house. After closing the door and waiting behind the window until she couldn't hear the sound of the ambulance anymore, she went to look for a big plastic bag and when she found it, in the kitchen, Daria went to Jane's room and removed all the bottles, putting them in the plastic bag and then in the trash. It took her a while to get rid of all the bottles. She cleaned Jane's room a little, trying to make the place look and smell better for when her friend went back home. This was her way to show her concern about Jane.

When she finished cleaning up Jane's room she knew she had no other excuse to avoid the unavoidable. She didn't want to go to the hospital and see her friend with glassy eyes and pale skin. But she cared and that was why she had to.

She walked all the way to her own house and took her parent's car to drive to the hospital. When she got there she found Trent in the waiting room, with the glassy eyes she expected to see in Jane, not her brother, staring at one of the white walls.

"Hey" Daria greeted.

It took Trent a minute to realize that Daria said something or even realize that she was there. He was thinking about Jane, about when they were little and they had to take care of each other without anyone else being there for them. He thought about the time they accidentally started a fire in Jane's room, when trying to make a bonfire inside the house, since outside it was raining heavily, and how he had to carry her outside the house and tell her to stay out while he went back in to call 911. Jane was just a kid back then, now she was a teenager and he once again had to call the emergency number, this time, because his sister had almost died.

"Oh, hey, Daria" he finally replied.

"I'm sorry I took so long" she apologized.

"It's fine".

"How is she doing?" Daria inquired.

"They haven't said much yet, but I think she's okay. She had too much alcohol in her system but she will get better" he said the last part more for himself than for Daria.

She sat in the chair next to Trent's. Maybe it was because she was tired, worried or because she had been locked inside Jane's room breathing the alcoholized air mixed with the fumes of paint spilled on the floor, but she let her head lie on Trent's shoulder, something she would've never even thought about doing before, but that seemed natural when it happened. Trent seemed a little impressed by this, knowing that Daria wasn't the kind of person that would normally do something like that, but it didn't bother him. The physical contact of a loved one, Daria, was something he found soothing.

After about 5 minutes without saying anything at all, Daria asked:

"What's going to happen when she goes back home?".

"She won't, for a while. By now, she has to stay in the hospital and then I will make her go to rehab. First she made me stay out of this but... it's getting out of control" he turned his head, making his and Daria's be closer than they had ever been ". I need your help, Daria. I don't know where my parents are right now, neither Penny and I doubt Wind or Summer can be helpful. I don't think I can do this alone".

"Don't worry. I'm here. I want to help Jane as much as you do and I don't want to leave you alone with all this responsibility. She needs us".

"Thanks" he smiled at Daria. He then took Daria's hand, which caught her out of guard. She made a girly squeak and blushed but Trent ignored that, maybe not even realizing he was holding Daria's hand.


	2. The hospital room

"Good morning, sunshine" said Daria, while reading a newspaper, as soon as she heard Jane waking up.

"Daria? What the hell happened? Is this the parallel universe in which you did accept my invitation to have sex to see if we were lesbians and it turned out we were?".

"That probably would've made things easier with Alison" Daria replied ". I don't know if you noticed, but you're in the hospital. I'll have to call Trent and tell him you woke up. I told him to go home, he didn't sleep during the two days you were sedated".

"Wait, why am I here?" she asked.

"So you don't remember it. Okay" she put down her newspaper and stood up next to Jane's bed ". You drank too much, passed out and almost had an ethylic coma. Trent and I found you in your room and called 911" Daria now stopped looking neutral and looked sad, as Jane had seen only a few times, remembering the first time that was when she had seen Trent leaving to go on a date with Monique " I don't know if Trent wanted to tell you this instead of me, but you're going to rehab after you leave the hospital".

"What? Did you say rehab?" Daria nodded ". Why would I need to go there? It's not like I'm a drug addict".

"Technically, Jane, alcohol _is_ a drug, just a very socially acceptable one. And you do have a problem with it. Didn't you hear what I said? We had to call 911 and you've been in a hospital for 2 days. Trent and I haven't been paying enough attention to this and look what it's done to you".

"Hey, look, I think it's, uh, sweet and everything that you and Trent care about me, I appreciate it. And I admit that I exceeded the limit a little bit this time, but it won't happen again".

"How could you possibly know that? You weren't expecting it to happen this time, but it did. It can happen again" she looked frustrated because Jane wasn't listening to what she'd said.

"C'mon, Daria, alcohol is the only thing that can make life bearable".

Daria raised an eyebrow showing her disapproval to her friend's belief.

"I was just kidding" Jane stated ". But I'm going to be okay, I don't need rehab. I can even stop drinking for a week to show you that I'm okay, but I wanna go home".

Her brunette friend sighed and while leaving the room, said "I'm going to call Trent".

Jane, confused by what Daria told her about "having a problem", stayed in her bed waiting for her friend to come back.

Meanwhile, outside the room, Daria was on the phone with Trent.

"Did she wake up?" was the first thing he said, before even letting Daria say hi or knowing who was calling.

"Yes, but...".

"I'll be right over" he said clearly excited even for his low voice.

"Yeah, Trent, but..." he hung up before she could talk to him. She wanted to tell him that Jane didn't admit having a problem and that she didn't seem willing to go to rehab. She was worried that when he saw Jane she would convince him to forget about the incident and he would agree to let her go home where, feared Daria, it could happen again and she didn't know what could happen a second time. Jane had been lucky, she virtually hadn't been harmed by what had happened and for some reason this made her believe it wasn't that of a big deal, despite of being in a hospital.

Daria thought about going back to Jane's room, but even though she wanted to be with her friend and see that she was now okay she didn't know what to do there. She felt angry because Jane was doing something destructive towards herself and others and she wouldn't even admit it. She knew that if she went to her friend's room all she'd do would've been to uselessly try to convince Jane that she was wrong and that she did have a problem even if she couldn't see it herself. She didn't want to upset Jane after she had almost faced an ethylic coma, or worse, getting in an actual fight in a moment in which she was required to be there to help.

She prefered to go to the entrance of the hospital and wait for Trent.

_He won't take too long_, she thought, _normally he would still be sleeping but this is something about Jane so he must be desperate to see her. If he didn't sleep for two days I think he wants to see her enough not to postpone it_.

And she was right, Trent's black van parked in front of the entrance only 15 minutes after Daria made the call. He got out of the car and went straight to hug her as soon as he was close enough to cover her with his arms. Lately, they've had a lot of physical interaction Daria wasn't familiarized with, but she never mind because both of them needed someone to rely on. They both were distressed about Jane's situation and since both of them only had Jane and each other as really close people, with Jane being out of the picture, all Trent had was Daria and all she had was Trent.

"How are you?" he asked before saying anything else, as if he was aware that he had sounded a little rude on the phone.

"Uh, I'm okay, I guess. What about you?" she replied.

"I feel much better" he said as he yawned ". I got a few hours of sleep. I was asleep when you called".

"I'm sorry I woke you up".

"No, it's okay. Actually, thank you because you called as soon as Janey woke up. How is she doing?".

"She's doing fine. But I still need to talk to you about...".

"I need to see her" he interrupted Daria ". I'll go check Janey and then we can talk, okay? I won't take too long. You can wait me at the waiting room if you want to".

"Okay" she agreed.

She saw him entering Jane's room and went to sit on a chair in the waiting room, feeling kind of guilty because she didn't tell Jane things she thought she should've told her after such a bad incident like that. It reminded her of the incident with Tommy Sherman, when after he died everyone kept repeating the phrase "it really makes you think". Now that her best friend had been so close to death, that had made Daria think about how she never told people around her important things they should know. She somehow assumed that the people she appreciated knew this, but it wouldn't be bad to let them know through words.


	3. Can you take any responsibilities?

Trent sat next to Daria and neither of them looked at each other. Her hair, her characteristic coat and combat boots were enough to make him be sure it was her without looking at her face. She recognized him as soon as he spoke.

"Janey seems to be okay. What did you want to tell me?".

"It's about her" Daria said.

"Oh" Trent replied with a sigh, as if he was expecting her to say something else.

"Yeah. She told me she's okay and that she doesn't want to go to rehab".

"She told me something like that. She said that you told her we're sending her to rehab and she begged me not to send her and that she wants to go home" Trent reported.

Daria finally turned her head and looked at Trent. He doubted and then also turned his head and found Daria's gaze waiting for his eyes to cross with hers.

"Do you agree with her?" she asked, expressionless and serious.

He moved his eyes across the room, looking at the other people who were sitting in chairs. Some trying to entertain themselves in such a boring place, some others with their faces covered with their hands, with their heads buried in thoughts of worry about their loved ones, like the ones he had after they took Jane to the hospital.

He shyly nodded, ready to see an angry Daria. He did think maybe Jane needed help, but he thought he could help her to make her more comfortable. She was somehow like his daughter, something that wasn't surprising since they had been raised by each other, and because of this he sometimes spoiled her, like that time, trying to give her what she wanted instead of what Daria thought she needed.

For his surprise, she didn't seem angry, she just sighed.

"So you do believe her".

"I don't" he stated ". We both know Janey has a problem. But I want to give this a try. She said she would be more comfortable at home. I'll keep an eye on her and you can help too if you want to".

"Of course I want to help, Trent. Jane is my best friend" she started to sound angry ". Trent, don't get me wrong, but you are too irresponsible for taking care of her enough to make sure she's always sober. Dammit, this is why I wanted to talk to you before Jane did, I knew she was going to convince you of doing something like letting her get better, by herself, with no medical attention, in the same house where she almost...".

"Daria" Trent interrupted almost screaming in his own way ". I get it, okay? You don't like the idea. It's not easy for me either, you know? I know I can't do all this by myself. I told this to you when it all started. She's my sister and I don't want to force her to do something she doesn't want to do, but can we at least try it? If it doesn't work, I'll take the responsibility and we will take her to rehab".

_Can you take any responsibilities?_

"Okay" she agreed, ignoring her own thoughts so she wouldn't offend Trent, but something told her that telling him he couldn't be responsible wasn't a great insult from his point of view.

When she agreed that, she knew that she was going to end up being more responsible for Jane than Jane herself.

Trent smiled to her, trying to make the environment less tense and held Daria's hand again.

"Come on, Daria. Let's go tell Janey about this" Trent said.

He stood up and, still holding Daria's hand, he walked slowly to the room where Jane was recovering.

"Hey" she said ". I see things seems to be going well between you two" she smirked with a raised eyebrow, staring and Trent's hand holding Daria's.

Daria immediately removed her hand and put her behind her back. Trent laughed and then coughed.

"You're not going to rehab" Daria said, slightly blushed, but ignoring her friend's commentary ", yet".

"What do you mean with 'yet'?" replied Jane.

"I mean that Trent and I agreed to let you try this recovery thing in Casa Lane instead of a hospital, but if you fail you're going straight to rehab".

Jane sighed and she looked angry.

"Fine" she muttered ". That's fair, I guess. By the way, when can I get the hell out of here? This place's smell make me feel like a lab rat".

"And is your house's smells any better?" Daria asked with a smile.

"Hey, as long as you don't get close to the food in the fridge it's pretty much okay most of the time" Trent answered half-smiling Daria and taking her hand without she even noticing.

Jane saw how Daria didn't notice this and she started to wonder what could be keeping Daria's mind so out of reality and how the hell did Daria and her brother had gotten to naturally hold each other hands in just two days.


	4. The story of T

"Thanks for staying with me today, Daria" thanked Jane while she was painting her own hospital room on canvas ". And thanks about cleaning my room, too. That was really nice of you".

"Well, I knew Trent probably would've fallen asleep or just be pretty much his normal lazy self when he came back home so I decided to get this place ready for when you came back since the moment you left the house".

"Yeah, you were right about Trent. He's already snoring in his room. Speaking of which, do you want to sleep in Penny's room or Trent's?" Jane smirked.

Daria blushed and rolled her eyes, trying to hide her embarrassment.

"He just held my hand, it wasn't a big deal, probably by accident or something. Also, I'm already over Trent anyway" Daria replied.

"Right, and that's why your face is all red".

_So it is all red right now, huh?_, Trent thought, listening to the conversation between his little sister and her best friend, feeling like he shouldn't be doing it but his curiosity couldn't help it.

"Maybe I'm getting a rash from the stress of you going to the hospital".

"Nice try, but I can see that you're not as over Trent as you thought you were. He likes you, you know that, right?".

_Or, you know, he's just taking advantage of your crush on him like he did that time when you got your belly button pierced_, Jane thought, more as a joke than as an actual possibility but didn't say it out loud because even with the obvious sarcasm it would've sounded mean.

_How does Janey know that I like her?_, Trent, amazed, inquired to himself with widely open eyes.

"What makes you think he likes me?" Daria asked with her eyes as open as Trent's, somehow hoping there was an actual possibility of him liking her, thing that her voice made very clear.

"Well, he held your hand like it was nothing and he's not like that, Daria. He's not the kind of guy who normally would hold your hand as a friend. That means something must have changed".

_Or maybe now that you're older he feels like it wouldn't be considered bad to have sex with you_. Jane felt bad for thinking those things, she didn't think at all that her brother would do something like that.

"He probably just wants to get laid" commented Daria, coinciding with Jane's thoughts ". Maybe Monique refused to go back with him and he's out of options".

Trent was even more impressed, he almost felt the need to go inside the room and tell her it was not the case.

_Why would she even think something like that? She's smarter than that_, he thought.

"Wow, Daria Morgendorffer, saying something that could count as putting herself down".

"Why do you think I am putting myself down?".

Jane kept painting with different brushes, barely looking at Daria. She was trying to paint Daria like she had seen her in the hospital: sitting on the chair while reading the newspaper.

"You just assumed that if my brother wants to sleep with you it's because he doesn't have anyone else to sleep with. What if he wants to sleep with you, not because he's out of options, but because he likes you?".

_I guess Janey knows me too well_.

Daria looked around the room, unable to answer to her friend's question. In the inside, she wanted it to be true: she wanted to believe that if Trent was interested in her it wasn't because he was desperate but because he had taken the time to talk to her, to get to know her and appreciate all those things. On the other hand, she just couldn't make herself believe that someone, especially someone like Trent, could ever be interested in her. Her daydreaming about Trent always felt like something that would never happen, and the possibility of that becoming so real so suddenly terrified her.

"Can we please stop talking about this?".

"Okay" Jane agreed.

Trent quietly sighed and went back to his room after he didn't hear anything for a moment. He had been listening, he stood there, expecting to hear an answer, something that told him little about how Daria felt towards him. But he left disappointed after Daria had avoided to speak about it. It didn't surprise him that she did, though.

Jane was now painting Daria's hair. She had decided to paint her friend with the newspaper covering her face and a Sick Sad World ad on the back of it.

"Does that mean you're sleeping in Penny's room?".

"Actually, if you don't mind, I'd like to sleep here in your room" Daria said and she noticed Jane's expression of amazement ". You know, I want to keep an eye on you".

"You really don't think I can stop drinking, do you?".

"Hey, I'm not saying that" _I'm just thinking it_ ". I just want to make sure you won't relapse".

"C'mon, Daria, you already checked all my room looking for booze and you didn't find anything, also Trent threw all his beer" Jane complained.

"You can always sneak out...".

"I won't" Jane seemed upset by Daria's commentary ". Why can't you trust me?".

"Because I did, Jane, and you ended up in the hospital. I don't want that to happen again. I'm sorry that I worry about you".

Jane looked at Daria, still angry and then said: "Okay. You can sleep in my room. But remember, if you want to put your hands on someone go see Trent".

Daria smirked.

"Don't keep your hopes up, I certainly don't feel like doing any of the Lanes tonight".


	5. Midnight snack

Daria opened her eyes and found herself surrounded by darkness. An unidentified sound had woken her up. She put her glasses on. The door of Jane's room was half open but it was dark out in the hallway too.

She got out from the sleeping bag and looked at the bed, trying to find Jane but she was not surprised when she noticed that Jane was not there. She stood up and turned on a small lamp with a weak light that Jane had placed next to the bed "in case you need to go to the bathroom or something so you don't wake me up turning on the light of the room". Jane's room looked pretty much the same but she noticed some clothes on the floor, clothes that weren't there when she had fallen asleep. It was a black shirt and gray shorts, they looked wrinkled and dirty, with multiple stains on them.

Daria frowned and took the shirt from the floor barely touching it with her fingers and then smelled it. The smell of alcohol was certainly there, but she could also smell a lot of perfume on it, as if someone had tried to cover up the first smell.

_Dammit, I knew it_, Daria thought, feeling disappointed, angry and betrayed, because Jane assured her she wasn't going to drink. _Now where the hell is she?_

The brunette girl walked to the hallway, not knowing where was she supposed to look at to find her friend.

_God, is she even in the house?_, she asked herself, but then assumed that if her clothes were there she probably had already returned.

Penny's room was in the end of the hallway, she remember, in the opposite side of the house, so she figured it'd be easier to check in the rooms right next to Jane's, in the side of the house where she was, and then check the others. She already had a mental image of a drunk Jane whom had passed out somewhere in the hallway or inside one of the other rooms.

_I wonder why didn't she just pass out in the place where she changed her clothes, though_.

Daria opened door after door and found herself in front of several rooms with no one inside. But then she opened one and was surprised by what she found. It was Trent. With all the anger and distress over Jane she had completely forgotten about Trent, about the fact that he was Jane's brother and that he lived in the same house.

He had left a blue lava lamp on next to his bed.

_I didn't know he had this_, she thought.

He was lying in his underwear on his bed. The mere sight of Trent being almost naked in front of her made her open her eyes widely and her mouth opened to pronounce an involuntary "eep!". She quickly covered her mouth, worried about waking up Trent, but he didn't even move. She couldn't see much detail due the lack of light in the room, but the soft light from the lamp was enough to see more than, she thought, she should've seen.

_Is he even breathing?_

She noticed a purple blanket on the floor that had fallen from the bed. It was a little chilly, even inside the house, and Trent was only wearing his underwear. As some kind of natural reflex, she walked in, took the blanket and covered Trent with it. She had a smile on her face. She felt like she just wanted to lie down next to him and be with him. The whole Jane thing had her under stress and she was worried and sad about her friend. She didn't have anyone else to help her go through that, just Tom and Trent.

_"Shit, right" _she whispered remembering she had gotten inside Trent's room looking for Jane.

She ran out of the room, noticing a light coming from downstairs. She tried not to be noisy while going down the stairs, but the distress came back and made her forget to go slower so she wouldn't wake up Trent. When she was finally downstairs she was trying to find where the light came from and noticed it was a kitchen at the same time she heard a noise coming from that room.

She found Jane wearing only her back tights and a black bra. Her hair looked messy and her red lipstick had smudged the mug she had been drinking from.

"Daria" Jane said clearly surprised, almost scared.

"Hi" Daria replied dryly with a dark expression.

"Hey, what's up with murderer gaze?".

"What are you drinking?" Daria asked, still dryly, ignoring Jane's question.

"Whoa, Daria, relax, it's just coffee" said Jane, once again upset by her friend's skepticism on her ability to stop drinking.

"Why are you drinking coffee" she stopped a moment to check the clock on the wall "at 3:00 AM? And I'd like an explanation about that shirt on your room that smells like alcohol. God, I knew it, Jane! Why can't you accept that you can't just stop drinking so easily?".

"Okay, you're losing your shit, Morgendorffer. First of all, I'm drinking coffee because there is absolutely nothing else to drink and I'm hungry as hell and there's nothing to eat but mac n' cheese, so I needed something until the mac n' cheese is ready. About those clothes, I found them under some canvas in my room, maybe from a few weeks ago and I put them there to remember to wash them in the morning. I'm not drinking, Daria, and I know you do this because you care but give me a freaking break! Why can't you trust me?".

Daria calmed down, touched by the last thing her friend had said to her.

"But then why are you wearing the clothes you would be wearing after taking off the ones on the floor? And why do you have lipstick on? Also I cleaned your room and I'm pretty sure I didn't leave anything that smelled like alcohol in there. I'm sorry I'm acting like this but I really don't want what happened to happen again" she said more sad than angry, with a weak voice.

Jane also looked sad, realizing she had to say the truth.

"Fine, you win. I admit it. I sneaked out around midnight thinking about having a last drink so I went all the way to the Zon because they normally don't charge me all I drink but when I got there they told me Trent told them not to let me have any alcohol if I went there and I realized how much it means to Trent that I get better and to you too. Some drunk guy spilled half of his drink on my shirt so I left and when I got here I took off my clothes and put some perfume I found in the bathroom so you wouldn't smell it and think I was drinking. I guess it didn't work. I'm sorry I lied to you but I was scared you'd assume that I can't do this. The coffee and the macaroni things were true though".

_How am I supposed to believe you didn't drink if you lied to me in the first place?_, Daria thought, but her friend was right. She needed to trust her more and be supportive instead of making the whole thing a witch hunt.

"Okay, I believe you. But promise me you won't sneak out anymore".

"I won't" she promised ". Now, do you want to join me and have a 3 AM snack together?".

"It's not as good as pizza, but how could I refuse?" Daria agreed with a smile.

Daria and Jane went upstairs after eating, but before entering her room, Jane told Daria she'd be there in a minute, because she needed to go to the bathroom.

Jane closed the bathroom's door and then took a small, pocket-sized steel container she had been hiding inside her bra. With a gaze that showed guilt, Jane smelled the scent from the alcohol within the container and then, enjoying every second of that burning feel going down her throat, she finished all the vodka, then brushed her teeth and went to bed.


	6. Onion rings for Janey

When Daria first noticed something weird about Jane was right after she was back from the art colony, when they had just started a new year of school. Things had rushed into that horrible accident only a weeks after Daria started to notice something weird was going on, she used to think, but she wasn't thinking much about the 2 months her friend had spent away where the drinking problem bloomed really fast, as if it was an existent and dormant condition waiting inside of her to be activated someday.

She noticed how the first day of school Jane had gotten there with sunglasses and her hair looked messy. She had a hangover and the day was terrible for her, with so many people, the noisy teachers and students.

"What happened to you? You look awful".

"Gee, thank you" replied Jane with a frown.

"Sorry, but you look like you had too much fun right before school".

"Well, I went to the Zon and found some people there and we started to talk until we lost notion of time and I'm just tired because I didn't have enough sleep".

"Hmm... I see. Why do I feel like you omitted something?".

"What do you mean?".

"Jane, it's obvious that you have a hangover. What I'm wondering is, well, many things".

"Okay, maybe I did have a couple of beers but it wasn't really a big deal".

"And a couple of beers made you end up in school with sunglasses and the will to kill someone if they make any sudden noise? Look, I'm not even going to ask why are you drinking, but why would you get drunk if you know you'll have to deal with a hangover in the worst place to have one?".

"I don't know, Daria. It's not like I'm used to drink, you know?" she lied ". I hung out with some people and ended up drinking more than I thought I was drinking, my bad. But it's nothing".

"When did you even start drinking?" her friend asked.

"Hey, it's not like I'm a drug addict or something. I just drink when I'm with people and things like that".

"Okay, whatever you say. Anyway, wanna go for pizza after school?".

"Sorry, I can't. I promised Trent I'm going to see him play at McGrundy's today and I need to work on this painting I haven't finished. You can tag along, I promise I won't leave with a random guy and then almost destroy our friendship again, what do you say?".

"I guess I haven't heard Mystik Spiral since they played at the art colony".

"Don't worry, they're still as bad but at least we can get free onion rings".

* * *

Jane sat in front of Daria with a large glass of beer in front of her and a plate of onion rings.

"Whoa, isn't that a lot?" Daria pointed out staring at the glass of beer.

"I don't know... I mean, I'm so hungry that I'm sure I can eat even two plates of this".

"I meant that beer" she explained.

"Oh. The beer".

"How did you even get them to sell it to you? You're a minor".

"Yeah but they don't really know that. They also may think I'm Trent's girlfriend".

"Incest in the name of booze, huh?".

"Look, Mystik Spiral's about to play".

"I'm sure you won't want to miss your boyfriend's performance" said Daria with a smirk.

Jane finished her beer within the first 2 songs and then kept drinking to the point she already seemed drunk while her brother was still in stage. She took a pack of cigarettes from her pocket and a lighter and went outside. Daria followed her, confused. Trent didn't notice they left, too focused on his guitar riff.

"What are you doing?" asked Daria.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm smoking" she said with a little slow voice tone and laughed.

"Jane, what the hell is going on? Are you drunk?".

"I'm not drunk".

"Uh, I didn't exactly say you were but I don't think I'll argue that at this point".

"God, I really miss Tom. Do you think it'd be okay if I call him? Because I really feel like I need to apologize for all the fights we had" she now looked sad.

"Jane, you are seriously starting to freak me out".

Jane threw the cigarette butt to the floor and stepped on it.

"With all this Tom shit everything is messy, dammit! I miss him so much but I know it just can't happen. I need someone really bad!".

Daria looked around, finding there was no one there but the security guard who seemed to be ignoring them.

"Are you feeling alright? You're...shaking a little and maybe you shouldn't...".

"Hey, Tom" the words came out of Jane's mouth and Daria didn't know how to handle the situation anymore ". I miss you, Tom!".

"Um... Jane, you drank too much".

"Can't we make it work out? Please! Things were so damn good and I'm sorry Daria and I screwed up everything. We can have a threesome if you want to".

"Jane, what the hell are you talking about?" Daria yelled and then took Jane's phone off her friend's hand.

"Hey, give it back!" Jane screamed and struggled to get back her phone, but Daria struggled back and her friend couldn't do anything but complain.

"Uh, Tom, I'm sorry about this, Jane isn't feeling very well".

"I thought so" he said ". It's okay".

"Well, nice talking to you" she said not knowing what else to say and not wanting to get into a long or deeper conversation with Tom". Bye" and she hung up.

A smirk was now on the face of the big, tall, security guard, feeling the awkwardness in that phone conversation.

"What the hell, Morgendorffer?" Jane yelled ". You just have to keep stealing him from me, don't you?".

"Jane, I'm not stealing anyone" she sighed ". Come on, I'll take you home. I'll tell Trent you're not feeling well".


	7. Daria and Tom

After she got Jane home, and after she held her friend's hair while she threw up, she stayed there for a minute waiting until Jane finally fell asleep.

"What is going on?" she asked to the unconscious Jane that was lying in front of her.

No answer.

"Why am I even talking to you? You might as well be dead... but you aren't" the possibility scared Daria for a moment and she had to check that Jane hadn't stopped breathing ". I think I'll go home. I'll have to call Trent later. I'm probably coming to check how you're doing tomorrow morning".

Silence, but it was good enough for Daria. She left Jane's house, confused because of the previous events, and as she walked home she thought about Tom. She hadn't thought about him since she had decided things couldn't work between them. But what if they had worked between them? Daria hadn't tried it, but it was because of something more important than that. With Tom, she wasn't sure if things could work despite of her feelings towards him. She wasn't sure if her friendship with Jane could survive something like that. And with Tom, she couldn't picture him being in her life forever. What would happen when they went to college? When they moved to the next phase of their lives? When their high school romantic interest was just not good enough anymore?

She could, however, picture her and Jane being friends during their adulthood, after high school. Her friendship with Jane was something especial. She didn't doubt of the strength of their friendship, but, she thought, why did she need to test it? She preferred to proceed with caution when it came to Tom, because the odds told her that not approaching him was better than give it a try.

When she got to her house, still confused because of the mixture of feelings -seeing Jane in such a strange condition, speaking to Tom after a long time without knowing anything about him- she locked herself in her room. She thought about writing something to keep her mind off the events, maybe a new Melody Powers adventure or portray Jane's situation as a short story happening to someone else, but when she tried, the words just never articulated enough to get to the paper.

Daria sighed and put the notebook on the floor. She looked at the phone. She could still call Tom, check how he was doing and, most important, she would finally have someone to talk to about Jane. He was discreet enough to keep his mouth shut about Jane and about her talking to him. Maybe it wasn't bad if she talked to him. After all, it was not going to be anything that could put her friendship with Jane in danger, just a little chat between friends.

She changed her clothes, knowing the ones she was wearing had a smell that could make her have to give some explanations she didn't want to give. After that, Daria nervously, went downstairs to get some soda, also trying to check if someone was on the phone.

"Oh, Eric" said Helen to her cellphone, while walking around the kitchen", of course I'm not busy. You send me a copy of that contract and I'll take care of it, okay?".

Quinn was sitting in there too, reading a fashion magazine.

"Hey, kiddo!" her dad greeted from the middle of the kitchen, while he was reading a cooking book and going around the kitchen trying to find the ingredients in the counters.

"Uh, hey dad. I just came by to get some soda. Sadly I am too full to have some of your new, uh, delicious malaysian recipe of today".

"Don't worry, I'll save some for you to eat tomorrow".

"Gee, thanks".

She opened the fridge trying to find soda. They only had Quinn's diet soda, and she didn't like the taste of it, but it was good enough, she thought.

"Daria, don't you dare to take any of my carrot sticks" Quinn warned.

"Don't worry, sis. I already say I'm not up for food tonight".

"Whatever, I just wanted to make it clear".

Daria rolled her eyes, took a can of soda and went back to her room hoping to be away from her family and her dad's new foreign meal. She'd have enough time to feel sick due what was going on.

With a soda can on her hand, Daria took the phone and waited until a girl's voice picked up.

"Hello?".

"Uh, hey, is Tom around?".

"Yeah, hold on" after a moment she heard the Elsie scream 'Tom' really loud.

"Hello?" the familiar voice of Jane's ex-boyfriend said.

"Uh, hey, Tom" her shaky voice replied.

"Daria? Hey! I haven't talked to you since... well, a couple hours ago".

"Yeah. I'm sorry about Jane".

He laughed.

"No problem. Is the threesome offer still a thing?".

"It stopped being a thing before Jane said it" she chuckled ". So how are you?".

"I'm doing alright. What about you? How is it going?".

"Good, good... great".

"Is everything okay, Daria? I mean, don't get my wrong, but why are you calling me? I thought you were planning on cutting contact with me after what happened".

Tom's words triggered the memory of what had happened in the car that night, after Daria swore Jane she hadn't kissed Tom. What if the stress Jane had gotten from the betrayal was part of the reason why she had decided to drink in first place?

"Uh, yeah, I needed someone to talk to and I couldn't think of anyone else".

"What about Jane?".

"Tom" she felt weird addressing him with his name, it was like a reminder that she was speaking to him and that was weird ", it's about Jane. What I want to tell you is something that I want you to keep as a secret, can you do that?".

* * *

"Whoa, that sounds pretty odd. Jane was never like that back when we were dating. She even disliked the smell of booze whenever we went to the Zon to see Trent play. She was never much of an alcohol person" Tom confirmed.

"Maybe it's just me, but I feel like something weird is going on. I mean, I know Jane, she normally wouldn't get drunk like that. And she got to school hungover this morning. I'm going to need to talk to Trent about that. But I wonder why didn't he stop her from drinking all that beer. I know he was on stage and everything, but he cares enough about Jane to notice that, right?".

"Right" he agreed ". But you know how Trent is. He really thinks Jane can take care of herself. And she can, most of the time, but she needs some guidance".

"I don't know what to do, Tom. I am sure she won't be willing to talk about it, Trent will think I'm over reacting and I'll have no one else. What if something happens to her?".

"Look, I know this is scary, but maybe you could wait and see how it goes. I would help but, you know, I don't think I'm the appropriated person to talk to Jane. I think she still hates me because of what happened".

"She doesn't... she just maybe would be upset by seeing you".

"Uh, talking about seeing me... would you like to go out for pizza or something tomorrow?".

Daria felt the anxiety coming back.

"Uh... I think I... Tom, I think it'd be really nice to go out but tomorrow I have to go talk with Trent and Jane".

"Oh... okay. What about friday night?".

Something told her to do it, to say yes. She had denied herself the opportunity to get to know someone like Tom, whom she found interesting, but now Jane was too drunk to know about it. It wouldn't hurt, it was just a thing between friends.

"Uh, Tom, would you mind to go to the pizza place in about 10 minutes?".

"Sure, but I have to say, I didn't think you'd be up for hanging out with me".

"Yeah, neither did I. I must be losing my mind" she meant it as a confession.

"It's not like this is too weird, is it? We're just friends, hanging out, nothing else".

"Yeah, just friends hanging out. Don't tell Jane about it".

"I won't".

* * *

"Uh, look, I only agreed to do this because I needed someone. I need someone. I'm confused and maybe this wasn't such a great idea. It was hard the first time to do what I did so I wouldn't ruin my friendship with Jane. Now maybe I'll end up making mistakes".

"Daria, I know how you feel. I know you made a decision and I respect it. I'm not going to make you do something you don't want to do. But we can be friends, right?".

"I don't know... I guess so" Daria was just taking the cheese off the pizza without eating, like Quinn normally did.

"Uh, Daria? Are you okay?" he asked while looking at her with a raised eyebrow, wondering why wasn't she eating. He knew her enough to know she liked pizza quite a lot.

"What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I'm just worried about Jane. I don't know, I can't help having a bad feeling about this".

"Yeah, I don't blame you. It's normal that you're worried. But it'll be okay. If you ever need someone, I'm here for you".

She shyly smiled.

"Thank you" and proceeded to bite a part of her slice of pizza.


	8. She can take care of herself

"Trent?".

"Oh, hey, Daria" the man with the raspy voice answered on the other side of the phone line.

"Sorry about last night. I wish I could've stayed longer".

"It's okay. Janey wasn't feeling good. Thanks about dropping her here last night".

"No problem. And about Jane... I need to talk to you about her".

Trent took a sip from his own bottle of didn't know for how long it had been there, but it was kind of warm. He frowned and put it back on the floor.

"What is it?".

"It's about why I had to take her home. She was a little... really drunk".

"Oh" he didn't seem surprised.

"She drank a lot. From what I've seen and heard from her she's been drinking, well, too often".

"Yeah, she has been drinking lately. Guess she got that from the art colony".

"You don't seem to think there is something bad about that" she said, upset by Trent's lack of interest.

"Daria, I know you're not used to that but Janey's old enough to take care of herself. Relax, a little booze won't hurt her".

Daria remember what Tom had said about Trent being completely sure that Jane could take care of herself, saying these words often.

"Trent, I had to hold her hair while she was throwing up".

"That happens sometimes, yeah".

Daria sighed, angry but not totally surprised by Trent's reaction.

"So you really don't care, do you?".

"Whoa, calm down. I care a lot about Janey".

"But you don't care that she's drinking?".

"People drink, Daria, it's no big deal. Stop worrying so much".

She sighed, frustrated.

"I have to go. I'll talk to you later. Bye".

"Bye".

Daria couldn't believe that Trent hadn't shown any concern about his own sister. As far as she knew, Trent's family was mainly Jane, so why didn't he worry about her? Why did he always have to care so little about everything? If he had used the excuse of saying that he drank often and turned out "just fine" she would have probably said some regretful things.

She immediately called Tom and, driven by anger, had almost screamed the aforementioned events to him. Tom didn't seem surprised about her reaction, which was normal, because he had already told Daria that he knew Trent wouldn't really worry about it.

"Hey... this isn't too related but remember about friday?" he asked.

_Friday night, a good night to get drunk,_ she thought.

"Yeah... I do" she hesitated ". But I was thinking that maybe it'd be better if I stayed with Jane that night. You know, friday night, she may want to go out and drink".

"I know, but, think about it. If Jane is going to drink she won't stop just because you say no. I honestly miss hanging out with you. Don't worry, I won't try anything. I told you I respect your decision. But it's nice to talk to you".

"I guess you're right about Jane. Alright, but we need to make this clear: we are not going to try to go on a relationship. Not this friday, not ever. Okay?".

"Daria, I already knew that" he softly laughed ". Trust me, it's okay. We won't. I know your friendship with Jane is important and I don't want to screw that up again. Don't worry. Also...".

"What?".

"Don't get too jealous, but there's a girl that's new in my school so I don't think you need to worry about me trying something with you that you don't like".

She secretly smiled, released.


	9. Casa Lane

After leaving the hospital, Jane had decided to take some days off until she felt more recovered from her recent accident. Daria didn't want her friend to miss school days but she was glad, though, that she was getting to spend more time with Jane than ever despite of not seeing her around school. And it didn't bug her that she was also spending a lot of time with Trent. Daria was still surprised that the alcohol poisoning hadn't left any damage as far as they knew. She had barely read about alcohol poisoning but she knew that in some cases it could left serious consequences. She was grateful that Jane seemed to be alright.

Her friend was doing okay. Because of his narcolepsy, Trent couldn't check on Jane all the time, but he was trying his best. Daria was a really big help, spending almost every moment she had checking that Jane was okay and helping her to get better. Trent and Jane had decided not to tell any of the other Lanes because they knew it wouldn't give any help, plus they didn't know where to find most of the family. Daria also decided not to tell anything to her parents. She first thought about asking them for help, but she didn't want her parents to have a bad perception of Jane and they probably would rush into trying to be helpful by sending her to rehab. Jane seemed to be doing just fine at home and Daria didn't want to change that.

The day felt endless. Jane had been a week out of school and also a week without alcohol. Daria was impressed but still felt the need of staying by her friend's side.

Jodie and Mack asked a few times, even Upchuck approached Daria wondering about Jane. She always said that Jane was sick, with a really bad flu and didn't gave more details, avoiding the chatting which made Jodie a little curious, but Daria didn't talk about it. Even later, at home, Quinn asked about Jane.

"Hey, Daria, where's that artsy chick you always hang out with? I haven't seen her around school lately".

"Don't worry, she's not pregnant or have any other condition that's material for fashion club gossip. She just got the flu a couple days ago and had to stay home. And talking about Jane, I think I have to be going to her house" Daria said looking at a clock on the wall and putting down the book she was reading ". Do me a favor and if mom and dad get here before I do tell them I went to Jane's".

"Daaaria , what makes you think I'll be here? Don't you know that I have plans with Jamie?". Quinn left, seeming angry because her sister assumed she was going to stay at home.

Daria ignored her sister, got up and took her green jacket from the top of the T.V., where she had left it right after getting home from school. She had decided to take few hours off from babysitting her best friend. It wasn't like their time together wasn't nice and something Daria deeply enjoyed, it was just that she now had to take the responsibility of being some kind of guardian, looking after her friend, making sure she didn't look at a can of beer with enough desire to relapse.

She was going to bitch a little bit more with Jane about Ms. Li's breakdown at school and how she ended up using an ax to break all the soda vending machines.

"She'll eventually lose her sanity" she'd told Jane only a few days before ". Nobody can sustain a healthy mind while working almost exclusively with soda".

"You know how she is, she gets over enthusiastic whenever there's any money around. But you're right, it's just a matter of time until she breaks down, that point right after her blood becomes some kind of soda pudding and the sugar gets her more hyperactive than Brittany".

While walking to Jane's house, Daria kept thinking about her. Jane's progress was impressive, but maybe too impressive.

_How come she hasn't had any symptoms of abstinence syndrome?, _Daria wondered while staring at her black boots hit the pavement, _her problem's been around for a short time but it's... dragging her too deep_.

Daria was right, even though Jane's alcohol problem had started only a few months ago, it had developed at an alarming speed. She was drinking every single day, passing out multiple times a week and getting home barely able to walk. It was obvious that despite of it's length, Jane's addiction was completely out of control. How could it be so easy to get rid of without having to fight?

By the time Daria arrived Casa Lane, her questions on Jane's recovery were immediately vanished by the police car in front of Jane's house and the front door open.

_Oh, shit_.

Daria ran across the yard, with a thousand of possibilities rushing across her mind, crashing with each other in a terrible mess of confusion.

She stood in front of the door and she found Jane, looking terribly, with her arms crossed and an angry yet partially confused, look on her face. Trent was against the wall on the other side of the room, looking at the floor, distressed and with his eye red. Two cops were speaking to Jane, asking questions and trying to calm her down.

"Look, there's no need to keep doing this. I'm fine. My sister just got a little angry over a fight we had and it'll be better if you leave. I can handle this" Trent said.

"Excuse me, young man" one of the police officers, a gray-haired man with an equally gray mustache, said ", but we don't accept domestic violence, no matter who's the one being violent. And this girl is obviously drunk".

"Listen, I am not fu...".

"Janey!" Trent shouted, interrupting his sister's trembling voice. He looked at Jane with anger, trying to keep his sister's mouth shut.

Neither of the people inside had acknowledged Daria's presence.

"Officer, I told you I can handle this. My little sister just took some of my beers and this is obviously not a good time for her to talk about it".

"Where are your parents?" a younger officer asked Trent.

"Uh" Trent hesitated, he didn't know where they were and was looking around the room trying to make something up ". They're out of town".

"We're gonna need to call 'em" the young one said.

"No" trent refused, suddenly scared by that possibility ". You don't need to do that. I'm old enough to take care of her for a few days until my parents are back. Please, she just made a stupid mistake, it won't happen again".

The two officers looked at each other and then at Jane, who didn't even looked at them back. They sighed and the old one said:

"Okay, son. But if we have to come here again we'll have to do something. Goodnight".

Daria quickly moved against the wall out of the house. Surprisingly, the cops didn't notice her, maybe because it was already getting a little dark. She waited there and saw them leaving, second after second being more away from the Lane house. She heard steps in the house, someone angrily stepping upstairs.

"No, wait a moment. Janey, we need to talk about this!" Trent's angry voice shouted, like Daria never heard him doing before.

She doubted about if she should go in, but when Trent approached the door and she noticed it was closing she moved in front of it and stopped it.

"Trent" was the only thing she said.

"Oh, hey, Daria" Trent greeted, but he seemed upset and also sad. She was right, his eye and also his face looked red. She hadn't seen it but he had some blood on his lip.

"Trent! What the hell happened?".

He sighed and opened the door completely, told her to come in and closed it. They sat on the couch and he cleaned the small stain of blood with his hand.

"Are you okay?" she asked concerned.

He nodded, trying to somehow cover his face by putting it down with his eyes closed. He was trying to calm down, because he hadn't been that angry before.

He didn't talk for a moment, neither did Daria because she couldn't imagine what was she supposed to say. Then she decided she had to know.

"Why were the cops in here?".

She already knew, by what she'd heard, that Jane had hit Trent while being drunk. Part of her wanted to go and confront Jane, but she knew she had to be there with Trent and also it didn't seem to be a good time to talk to her. She was so confused that she couldn't even give herself time to be mad at Jane for breaking her promise of keeping herself clean.

"Jane and I had a fight" he was talking slowly, even more slow than usual ". She got drunk again and I found out she had been drinking in secret this whole time anyway. She was keeping a lot of bottles of booze inside of her closet" Daria had checked Jane's closet a few times, but perhaps she didn't check it well enough ". So we had a bad fight and she ended up hitting me. We were shouting so I guess one of the neighbors called the police". He didn't say anything else.

_Trent, this is all your freaking fault. If you had listened to me in first place instead of her this wouldn't be happening. Dammit, why can't you take a fucking responsibility for once in your freaking life?_

She thought about saying that and she was tempted to do so. But this wasn't a good time for an "I told you" moment. It certainly wasn't. Trent didn't have anyone else, she reminded herself, and neither did she. The last thing she wanted was to get in a fight with Trent. It was not worth it.

"I'm sorry this happened. This is all my fault. If I had gotten here earlier this would have never happened".

"No, Daria, this isn't your fault. You've been coming here everyday, checking that Jane's okay all the time. You've done more than I have. You deserved your day off, it was me who screwed it up. I should've taken as much care of her as you. I'm her brother, after all, but I'm useless".

"What are you saying?" she said, shocked by thinking that Trent thought little of himself ". Trent, maybe you made a few mistakes, yes. But you said it, she's been drinking this whole time even though I was with her. I know you didn't like the idea, but this proved us we can't do this by ourselves. We need to make her see someone who can help her. But, first, let me help you with that, it looks like it'll be a bad bruise. Do you have any frozen meat or something?".


	10. Jane and Trent

Jane shut the door of her room, angry, and looked to her closet for another bottle of the tequila she had been stealing from Penny's room.

"Dammit!" she yelled, noticing she had drank them all throughout the week. She wanted more. She needed more. She felt a lot of stress, she felt so angry. How could Trent even talk to her like that? She didn't have a problem and she was tired of having people she trusted saying horrible things about her and even talking about making her stay in a hospital for days to "solve" that "problem".

"I don't have a freaking problem, what's so fucking wrong with wanting to have a goddamn drink every once in a while? Daria should fucking know, she's so bottled up that she won't even try to solve her freaking problem. What about her fucking problems? Who fucking cares about it? Nobody but they have to get in with my personal life. Stupid freakin' assholes".

She walked around the room, desperately hoping she had some alcohol somewhere in her room. The dizziness made her have to walk more slow and try to find support on anything she could find so she wouldn't fall straight to the floor. If it wasn't because of the rage, she wouldn't had made it upstairs. Then she remembered something: the "in case of an emergency" booze under Penny's bed. She had some bottles that Jane hadn't touched. Penny would get really angry when she found out the bottles were gone by the next time she visited her house, but Jane was too drunk to think about her older sister.

She opened the door of her room and had to find support on the wall. It looked kind of blurry, and she felt bad, but she wanted more. She kept walking to the opposite side of the hallway to Penny's room. She could hear Trent's voice talking to someone.

_Is that Daria?_, she wondered, and then the phrase "I know it's cold, but don't move" confirmed it. Jane stopped in the middle of the hallway, feeling sudden guilt. Her friend, who had trusted her sober words, was down there, with her brother, the one she hit, and she probably already knew about it. She felt ashamed, she didn't want Daria to think of her like that. Still trembling, she looked back to her room, not knowing what to do. She felt sad and angry, but with herself and not with Trent or Daria.

She did her own personal version of the walk of shame to her sister's room, took a bottle of ginebra and started to drink it.

Less than half an hour later, Jane was lying on her sister's bed, crying her lungs out.

Trent and Daria, hearing Jane crying, ran upstairs fearing that she had gotten hurt or something similar. They finally found her in Penny's room with an empty bottle on the floor and her face washed with tears.

"Janey" Trent said that with all the anger vanished from his voice.

"Jane, are you okay?" Daria gasped, sickened by the smell of the alcohol, concerned about how bad her friend looked.

"Leave me alone" she cried "please get the hell out".

"Jane" Daria was the first one to get close to her, Trent was still a little frightened because of her sister's recent behavior ", please".

Jane kept crying and something in both Daria's and Trent's soul broke. They were about to cry, destroyed by seeing their sister and friend as broken as she was. When she was in the hospital, they could see her body, gone, but now, with her awake, they could see her as sad as maybe only Trent had the chance of ever seeing her. She hadn't cried so much and so loud since she was a kid.

Trent helped Daria to take Jane to the bathroom. Trent went to put Jane's clothes in the washer machine while Daria tried to wash away all the alcoholized smell. Jane cried inside the bathtub and seemed not even know what was going on. She was almost about to lose conscious, because of the amount of alcohol in her system.

Daria grabbed her when she finally passed out and Trent helped her to put Jane in a towel and get her dressed with fresh clothes. They put her in her bed and covered her with a blanket. Like a deja vu for Daria, she and Trent took all the bottles out of Jane's room. Daria checked that her friend was okay and they both sighed once they closed the door of the room. Daria was about to break into crying as much as Jane had done, but she contained her tears and so did Trent.

"Daria" he called her ", could you spend the night here, please? I don't know what will I do if something else happens tomorrow or if she wakes up in the middle of the night".

"Sure. I'll just need to call home. Mom won't mind, but I'll need to go home to grab some things".

"Okay, I'll be in my room. You can take the key, it's on the kitchen's table. Knock my door when you're back".

Daria nodded and Trent just entered his room without saying anything else. She went to the kitchen and, like Trent had said, the key was on it. She took it and put it in the left pocket of her jacket, then went to take the phone.

"Mom? I'm going to need to spend the night at Jane's, we're still working on the project and we have a lot of work to do so by the time we'd finish what we needed to do today it'll be too late to go home".

"_Uh, sure, Daria. Are you okay? You sound... distressed, honey_" Helen replied.

"Im fine" Daria lied, cleaning a tear that was running down her cheek ". I'm just tired, but I need to work on the project. I'll go home to take my toothbrush and some clothes. Talk to you later, mom".

Daria hung up, and then nervously dialed another phone number.

"Hello? Hey, I need to ask you a favor. Could you please go to my house and wait for me there? I need to speak to you".

Daria hung up, took a deep breath, and left Casa Lane.


	11. My night at Trent's

"So, what is it?".

"Well, I didn't tell you some things. I don't know, I had a lot of things going on at the same time" _Trent_ ". I'm sorry".

"It's okay" Tom soothed her ". What happened?".

She sighed and hugged her backpack, focusing her view on the floor of the car.

"A week ago, Jane drank too much. She got poisoned".

"Oh god, is she okay?" he asked, clearly worried.

"Yes, she is. She stayed a couple of days at the hospital. But she's home now. I was going to make Trent send her to rehab, but we decided to try this thing to let her try to recover at home".

"How did it go?".

Daria didn't answer and looked around the car nervously.

"Oh" he whispered, knowing that the answer wasn't positive.

"She had been drinking in secret during the time I thought she wasn't. And she... she got really drunk today, earlier. She got in a fight with Trent, she gave him a black eye, someone called the cops, she locked herself in her room but then she came out. We found her crying in Penny's room. Trent I and gave her a shower. Then she passed out and we put her in her bed. I'm staying with them tonight, Trent seems not to be doing so well".

"I can see why. This is insane. Poor guy, I feel bad about Jane too. She would've never done something like this before".

"I know. I'm going to make her go to rehab this time. She's not okay. There's no way Trent and I can do this by ourselves".

"Hey, at least you tried, right? What about the cops?".

"Trent convinced them that he could handle it. We need to keep her away from the cops, though, they gave her a warning that if they had to be called again they would have to arrest her for domestic violence".

"Wow. This really is unbelievable. I can't understand how it got to this".

"I can't, either. But it happened. Uh, I have to go now. I need to be going to Jane's".

"Don't worry, I can give you a ride" he offered.

Tom turned on his old, rusty car and started to drive.

After some moments of dead silence, Tom said:

"So... are you sure you want to stay in Jane's? I mean, things could get a little heavy when she wakes up".

"I do want to stay there" she assured him ". I'm sure she'll be too ashamed and hungover to make things heavy. Maybe just a little tense, but I can handle it. I've been taking care of her all week".

"Really? That's very impressive. No doubt why you were too busy to give me a call".

"Yeah, sorry about that".

"It's okay" he said while stopping in front of the well known Casa Lane ". Thanks, anyway".

"What for?".

"For trusting me. You trusted me enough that first night and decided to tell me what happened. Then you trusted me again and looked for me when you needed someone to talk to".

She opened the door and took her backpack. When getting out of the car, she turned her head and looked at Tom.

"Hey, thank you".

"No problem, I can give you a ride whenever you need one".

"Not about the ride. I mean, thanks for being there and listening".

He smiled and she stayed in front of the house until she saw the car turning left two blocks away of the Lane house. Daria turned around and started at the sculpture that Jane had on her front yard. She detailedly stared at the windows of the house, somehow paranoid that someone may have been looking at her getting out of Tom's car.

She walked closer to the house and saw through the window that everything seemed dead. Nobody there, just closed doors and silence. She took the key, opened the door quietly and put it back on her pocket. She closed the door and then went down the stairs. She went straight to Penny's room. The smell of alcohol was barely on the air and the hidden bottles were now visible She put her backpack on the bed and went to see Trent.

* * *

"Trent?" the tall, black-haired man heard as someone knocked the door of his room.

"Come on in, Daria" he replied.

Daria opened the door and entered to the messy room she already knew. The duck-shaped phone was on the night table as always and his two guitars were lying on the floor on one corner of the room, as Trent lay on his bed.

"Hey, I'm sorry I took so long. My mom insisted in making me eat dinner before coming".

"No problem" he looked at her with a curious look ". Where's your stuff?".

"I put everything in Penny's room" she answered while walking inside the room and sitting on Trent's bed next to her friend ". I decided I won't sleep in Jane's room, I don't want to bother her, and all the booze was in Penny's room so I'll get to check that Jane can't take it" she put her hand in her pocket and took a shiny, silver key and put it on the night table ". Here's the key. Thanks".

"Uh" he seemed confused ". I thought you wouldn't mind sleeping here".

"I am, Trent, I just told you that I'll sleep in Penny's".

He got up, sitting on the bed instead of lying on it, next to Daria and finally found himself able to look at her without trying to look at the floor instead.

"I mean, uh, I, like, wanted you to sleep here. With me " he mumbled.

"Eep!" the girl squeaked.

Trent smirked, recognizing that squeak from when Daria's mom had asked him to stay at their house.

Daria was blushing and she looked really red. She thought about Tom. She could never be sure if Trent felt anything towards her, but she could believe Tom if he ever told her he liked her. At that point, however, the events and Jane's insinuations about Trent's feelings toward her made her not be so sure about whether or not she had gotten over her crush on Trent despite of the experience with the multimedia project being a solid proof that it couldn't work out.

"Do... what do you say? It's okay if you don't want to... I mean, you'll be in Penny's room so if I need to talk to someone or anything I can go...".

"Okay" she agreed.

He raised an eyebrow, not sure if she had agreed to sleep in his room or to be available for him to go talk to her later when she was in Penny's room.

"I'll sleep here. It's no big deal. I know you're not feeling okay right now. Just, don't tell Jane" _the last thing I want is to have her teasing me about this for the rest of our lives once she's sober again_ ". I'll go get my stuff from Penny's room and put my pyjamas on, I'm a little tired".

He nodded and kept staring at Daria while she left the room.

He smiled. That time when he had told her Daria he'd date her if she was a few years older, he recalled it being more than just a joke. He laughed afterwards, trying to make it sound less serious. He had been intrigued about Daria since he first met her. He didn't remember Jane having any friends, except for a few times he'd seen her hung out with a goth girl, and back then they were too young for him to even think about getting to know her sister's friend. But with Daria it was different. He found her funny, cute and nice despite of or maybe thanks to her constant sarcastic commentaries. He liked her. First he didn't think it was right, she was Janey's friend, not his, and she was a high schooler, way too young for him to be with her. But he really enjoyed spending time with her. He noticed she liked him back, it was obvious, thing he found kind of adorable.

A few moments later, Daria came in with some dark blue shorts and a lighter blue, baggy shirt. She had a backpack with her, where, Trent supposed, she had her toothbrush and probably some clothes. She left the backpack next to Trent's bed and closed the door of the room.

"I just went to check how's Jane. She's still asleep and I don't think she'll wake up any time soon".

She sat next to him.

"How are you?" she asked softly touching with one hand the side of Trent's face that Jane had punched ". Does it still hurt?".

"I'm okay. It doesn't hurt as much as it did before, but I think I'll get a black eye. Janey just got upset over the fight, you know she's not normally like this, right?".

"Yeah" she nodded as she said it ". That's why I need to help her. She's not like this".

"Maybe I was wrong. Janey can't always take care of herself".

"She needs some help every once in a while".

"Yeah".

_Should I kiss her?_, Trent wondered while looking at Daria,_ I don't know if she'll be okay with that but, shit, I feel like I need her more than I ever did before. I wish she knew it_.

"So, where's the sleeping bag?" she asked.

"Uh" he hadn't thought about that, mostly because he was expecting to have her sleeping next to him, on his bed, and the sleeping bag had been thrown away by Jane after she had spilled some alcohol on it by accident while trying to cover up her drinking.

"Trent?".

"It's actually a funny story" _more like a convenient one_, he thought ". Janey kind of threw it to the garbage".

"What? Why did she do that?".

"Remember I told you she had been drinking this whole time? Well, she threw some booze on the sleeping bag. She freaked out and threw it so we wouldn't find out".

"Oh... But how will I sleep on your floor? No offense, but I'm afraid something that's been there too long gets jealous and attempts to murder me in the middle of the night".

"Well... you can sleep on my bed".

She blinked two times, now knowing that to say.

_I think blinking twice means 'yes'_, Trent thought.

"I... I guess it's fine".

_Just don't try anything_, Daria thought, ... _yet_.

Daria moved and sat on the right side of the bed. Trent just looked at her, still wondering. She yawned and and closed her eyes for a moment.

He lay next to her, with his head resting on his arms. He could almost picture the whole thing as if they were a married couple in an average night before going to sleep.

"Janey would find it funny that you're sleeping in my bed" he commented with a smirk.

"But she won't find out, will she?".

"No, I guess she won't".

He thought about something, and then finally decided to say it only a few seconds later.

"Er, Daria?".

"Yeah?" she answered slowly and with a weak voice.

"Would you mind if I... hug you?".

The well known "eep!" came out of Daria's mouth again. Her face was, again, red.

"Uh... I... it's... yeah, sure, why not?".

Trent covered a nervous Daria with his arms. She thought it was weird, that it was even scary because it had shocked her, but she felt somehow protected and it was nice to have some human contact and be next to someone she loved so much. She just let her head lie on Trent's chest, like she had imagined many times back when everything seemed platonic. Tom's name didn't seem to be around her mind anymore.

"Trent?".

"Yeah?".

"What's going on?".

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I mean... you know. This wouldn't have happened a few months ago, would it?".

"I guess so".

"So?".

"I don't know, Daria. But right now, well, I feel happy to be here with you and I'm glad you're here. Is it okay if I really don't know what's going on?".

"Yeah, I think so. I mean, I'm happy that I'm with you, too. But, just promise me one thing".

"Sure, what is it?".

"This is dumb but, please promise me this is not just some kind of game".

"Daria" he finally had his chance to tell her what he'd wanted to tell her when he had heard Daria speaking to Jane about him just 'wanting to get laid' ", you know me better than that. I'm not doing this because I'm bored or because I want to have sex with you. It really isn't about all that stuff. It's something way more important than that".

"And what is that thing?".

"You heard Janey: I really like you".

She fell asleep with a smile on her face.


	12. Morning pizza

When Daria woke up, after she took her glasses and put them on, she saw Trent with his black eye lying next to her in his bed.

_Oh, so it wasn't just a dream_.

She was wondering why the hell had she agreed to sleep in the same bed with Trent. Probably the same reason why she'd agreed to hold his hand. It was all because of the stressful conditions, nothing else, right?

_What about Tom? Why am I even thinking about Tom? Just because we hung out a few times it doesn't mean a thing. Trent is important to me again, Tom and I are just friends. Wait, did I just admitted that Trent...? Oh crap._

She got up and exited the room, going to see if Jane's was still sleeping.

_She probably is, even I'm tired from last night_.

But when she got to her friend's room, she only found messy blankets on the bed instead of Jane. She was not there. Daria got scared, fearing her friend would be drinking again from the booze in Penny's room, so she ran to the other side of the house. But she also found it empty, with the only thing related to Jane in there being the stain of alcohol on the floor.

_Oh, hell, what if she left?_

She ran down the stairs and felt released when she found Jane in the kitchen, sitting on a chair in front of the table and drinking a colorless liquid from a shiny glass and a jar with the same colorless liquid in front of her. Jane was looking to the wood table like there was nothing else to look at, not even her friend standing in the entrance of the kitchen. Daria noticed that Jane had the same look that she'd seen in Trent. They both chose a place to look at, somewhere they could look at with their heads down, and either closed their eyes or looked at the particular thing with cold silence in their eyes. But Jane had some tears running down her cheeks and falling on the table.

Jane hadn't seen Daria yet, or if so she was ignoring her.

Daria was using that time to analyze the situation and decide how to react, what to say. She could be harsh, tell her how disappointed and angry she felt, she could be supportive or she could simply tell her they were sending her to rehab and walk away. But she couldn't. The mere fact that she was now there, in her friend's house and that even when trying to be cold she was still trying to do something to help her was enough to prove her that she cared, she cared an awful lot and she couldn't help it. She had cleaned her room two times so her friend could feel comfortable when trying to recover, she had waited for her to wake up in the hospital, she had carried her to the bathroom and cleaned her, then had dressed her up and put her in bed. She wanted to help. And only a couple years back she would be frightened to notice that she cared so much for someone. Her sarcastic friend needed her and she was not going to run away and hide in her bedroom buried in books.

"Jane" Daria called.

Jane got her head up, with her face soaked in tears. Her blue eyes opened and she put her hands on her cheeks in an attempt to quickly dry her face, but her eyes were read and she couldn't dry that redness away. She seemed to try to speak, but she couldn't. Her friend didn't know how guilty and ashamed she felt, so much that she felt like she didn't deserve to speak to Daria and she couldn't look at her in the eye for too long.

Daria noticed it, even though it was a strange situation, she knew her friend well enough. She walked across the room and sat next to Jane, looking curiously at the liquid Jane was drinking.

"It's just water" Jane's weak voice swore.

"I know" the brunette replied ". Jane, I'm not going to say this is okay, because it's not. You screwed it up. But I screwed it up and Trent did too. We want to help you, but we obviously aren't qualified to do it on our own".

"I'm sorry about this. I'm really sorry. I didn't want this to happen".

"I know you didn't. That's why we need to fix it. Just let us help you and we'll go back to normal".

Jane sighed.

"Okay. You're right. I agree, I'll let you help me with this... problem".

Daria smiled and hugged her friend. Jane first opened her eyes confused, but then just closed them, smiled, and wrapped her arms around Daria.

Daria then stood up and went to heat some water.

"Do you want some coffee? I'm still a little tired but I felt like I needed to go check on you".

"Nah, I'm okay. By the way, how's Trent?" she asked, with a worried look on her face, recalling the punch she'd given him.

"Don't worry. He's got a black eye but he seems to be doing alright. I didn't know you could hit that hard".

"Neither did I. I really need to apologize to him. And how are things going between you two?".

"What do you mean?" Daria asked while she went back to sit next to Jane.

"I'm not stupid, you know? When I woke up I went to see Trent and saw you sleeping next to him so I just came downstairs".

"Oh".

_Shit_, Daria yelled in her mind with an awkward look on her face and her cheeks colored with a red tone.

"So...?" Jane inquired after Daria didn't give any answers.

"So what?".

"What happened?".

"Nothing".

"C'mon, Daria, are you telling me that you were in his bed _just_ sleeping? I promise I won't tease you about what you did".

"You won't because nothing happened. You know I wouldn't be up for doing anything".

"You normally wouldn't be up for sleeping in the same bed with my brother, so how could I tell that you haven't been replaced with a sex-maniac alien?".

"I swear we didn't do anything. I was tired and confused so I may have agreed to sleep in the same bed, but we did not do anything. Even if I had been up for that, I would've been too tired for it. By the way, you didn't tell me you had a tattoo".

"What tattoo?".

"You know, that tattoo you have on your right..."

"Oh" Jane interrupted ". That tattoo. That's partially Trent's fault" she laughed nervously ". Hey, can we order some pizza? I'm starving and I'm too hungover to make myself feel worse by eating from the fridge".

"Sure, I'm up for pizza".

"I'm up for pizza too" a slow, deep, raspy voice said.

Both girls turned their heads and saw Trent standing next to the entrance of the kitchen. Jane's jaw dropped and she went back to look at the table and took a sip from her glass.

"Trent" said Daria wondering how much of the conversation had he heard ". Wow, it's only 9 am and it's saturday, what are you doing awake?".

"I wasn't going to get out of bed but then I didn't see you there and I came to check if you were here" he explained, making Jane smirk despite of her shame. Trent looked at Jane and walked across the room, next to her. He then hugged her for a long moment, with watery eyes. "Janey, this is not your fault. Don't feel bad about my eye, I'm okay".

"I'm sorry, Trent" she broke down with some tears ". I really don't know why I did that".

He stopped hugging her and made her raise her face so he could look at her.

"Hey, no hard feelings, little sister. Everything will alright. Now I am really hungry too, where's the phone?".


	13. Rehab, love, insomnia

Trent opened the door and saw Daria standing in front of him.

"Oh, hey Daria. I just need to have some breakfast and we can go see Janey after I'm done, okay?".

Daria nodded and went inside the house and followed Trent to the kitchen, where he was eating pizza leftovers. He offered her some, but she had already have sugar tarts for breakfast.

"Your black eye looks better" Daria mentioned ". Sorry I haven't been around the last couple of days. I , so I've been a little busy. Quinn's been a pain in the ass lately, but I can't wait to tell Jane I won our bet".

"What bet?" He asked while taking a slice of pizza from the box.

"It's about that club my sister's in, the Fashion Club. One of the members broke her leg, gained some weight and it became a crisis. So Jane said the club would just break up, I said they wouldn't and it turned out I was right. Now she has to tell me everything about the tattoo".

He laughed: "her tattoo is a dumber story than mines".

What she had said was partially right, but she had also spent a good amount of time with Tom. She was more comfortable now, because her feelings were clear: Tom and her were just good friends. With Trent, she still didn't know what was happening.

"It's okay. I missed you anyway, even though it was just a few days" he confessed while drinking some beer.

"I missed you too" her mouth curved in the shape of a small, nervous smile ". How's been she doing while I was away?".

"She's okay. I went to see her yesterday. She's with the detox and the therapy and the whole rehab. She doesn't love it but, you know, she accepted that she needed it. She was... a little anxious and she was acting kind of weird but they told me its normal. She seems a lot happier now though. Mom came yesterday but she didn't notice that Janey wasn't around".

"Are you planning to tell your mom about this one day?".

"We still don't know. What would be the point anyway? You know how the Lanes are, Daria, it'd be useless to hear mom's speech about the butterfly again".

"I guess so. At least Jane's got us".

"Yeah" he agreed ". I think I'm done eating, we should go now".

She nodded and they went inside Trent's old, black van. He slowly began to drive.

"You know, Daria, I'm lucky that you're around. I really don't know what would've happened without you. Thank you".

"No problem, it's for Jane and for you, I knew you needed help. Thanks to you too, for being around. I needed someone and you were there" Daria took a deep breath and weakly asked; ". Did you mean what you said the other night?".

"That I liked you? Of course I meant it, Daria. You make me happy" he smiled and she, predictably, blushed.

"Wow. It sucks things didn't work out for us. How's everything going with Monique?".

"Monique?" He raised an eyebrow and seemed confused ". Oh, Monique. Haven't seen her since Janey went to the art colony".

"I'm sorry things didn't work out for you two" she felt secretly satisfied, Trent noticed it and smirked.

"You know, we can make things work out for us. I'm willing to take it even more serious than my music".

She was surprised because he had just made her the biggest priority and she'd never pictured Trent putting anything over his music.

"I... I don't know what to say" she said, unable to simply say yes.

"You could say that you want us to try".

She nodded with a smile she couldn't contain. Trent stopped the car, they were at the parking lot of the clinic and he finally kissed her,

* * *

"Hey, Jane, remember when I told you that it would be impossible to picture me making out with anyone?" She laughed nervously.

"You can picture her with me, Janey" Trent completed, making Daria blush.

Jane opened her eyes and smiled.

"Daria" she yelled " and Trent, whoa, this is finally happening".

Daria blushed and Trent smiled.

"Anyway, how are you doing?" Asked Daria changing the subject.

"I can't complain. I mean I'm on a pizza-free diet, which sucks, but when without the pizza, I'm gaining all that weight I lost lately. It's been... kind of weird. I wanted to talk about this with both of you. But... okay, this is hell" she stated, no longer with a smile but with a frown.

Daria and Trent raised their eyebrows and asked why at the same time.

"This is driving me nuts, no fucking alcohol, ever".

"Uh, Janey, that's the point" Trent interrupted.

"And I get so sucking anxious. Look at my freaking nails".

"You're not becoming Quinn, are you?" Daria looked at her friend's nails and got Jane's point ". Oh, I get it now".

"Yes, Morgendorffer" she seemed now upset ". I'm really fucking anxious" Jane usually didn't swore as much while being sober ". And I feel sick, I don't even want to eat but I have . I need you both to know how much I love you to go through this crap just to get better. It's hard to sleep, I feel nauseous and I'm fucking... I'm going insane".

"Why do you say that?" Trent asked.

"They said it was normal" she seemed calmer ". But it can't be freaking normal. What is normal about feeling fucking bugs all over your body. It makes me throw up sometimes because it's very freaking scary".

"It's going to be okay, Janey, I spoke to them. They said it'll get better, that the symptoms will go away".

Daria grabbed her friend's hand and looked at Trent, knowing that he wanted to talk to Jane alone.

"I need to go to the bathroom. Mind if I leave you alone for a few minutes?".

Trent smiled at her and Jane agreed.

"So, how is it going with Daria?" Jane asked her brother.

"You know how I always felt about her. I'm glad that I'm with her now. God, I can't believe I was with Monique back then when I could've been with Daria".

Jane smirked, pleased.

"I'm glad you're back to your senses, big brother".

Trent felt some kind of inner warmth. Jane hadn't called like that since they were little kids. Back then, the idea of ever having to take his sister to a rehab clinic seemed surreal.

"Look, I wanted to apologize. If I hadn't been sleeping and all about the Spiral things would't have happened like this. I couldn't even do something back when you were fourteen. I was meant to be there for you then and I'm still supposed to be here for you. But I never get things done right" he seemed to be mad at himself ". I am sorry, I'm really sorry about this. You are one of the most important things in my life, and I love you, little sister".

Jane had tears of joy running down her cheeks. Trent noticed this and hugged his sister.

"I love you too, Trent. And pleased, don't ever blame yourself for any of those things, okay? Back when I was 14 you tried to do something but I didn't listen. Just like this time. This is not your fault. All you've done is help me. I love you" she repeated.

* * *

Jane took a sip from her bottle and put it back on the floor before going back to her drawing. She was drawing a bottle of booze, from what she could remember. She was drawing the top of the bottle and adding some shades. She was more into painting, but with the things as messed up as they had been lately she hadn't gotten a lot of art supplies in a while, since she had gotten more and more interested in drinking and waiting until she passed out, which didn't give her a lot of time for art.

She started to rethink about the things that had happened under the effect of the alcohol, at least the things she could remember.

She remembered that time at the club, when she got into a fight, which was a practice for the unexpected future fight he'd have with his brother. The girl, one of Monique's friends, was also drunk so they both started to beat the shit out of each other, but it was mostly Jane pulling Monique's friends' hair and the other girl scratching her with her long nails, since Jane's hair wasn't that long. It went on for about ten minutes, until Monique walked in the bathroom, looking for her band's drummer, and found her drunk in a fight with Trent's little sister. The band separated the two girls and Monique, whom appreciated Jane despite of the problems her relationship with Trent had been through, took the drunk highschooler home, avoiding Trent, and left. Monique called the day after, concerned about her and asking if she was okay.

"What do you mean? Sure, I feel kind of bad, but... wait, what? Oh... that seems kind of... are you sure it was me? I see... Thanks about dropping me off here, I appreciate that" Jane looked at the clock "Oh, shit, I'm late for school. Thanks about everything, Monique, I've gotta go".

That was the day when Daria first noticed something odd going on with her. After that, things had rushed into that moment, when Jane was sitting in her room with a bottle of water, drawing, bringing back no-so-old memories and trying to get better. Things were going alright when Daria wasn't around, alright as in she being able to drink as much as she wanted, pass out and throw up and nobody would give her any bullshit for it. But then Daria was there and Daria didn't sleep as much as Trent did, reason for which she noticed things had changed during the summer. Daria had saved her and she was utterly grateful for her friend's intervention even though first it had been sort of a drag.

She also remembered how drinking at the art colony had finally made her make some regretful decisions with certain tattooed brunette girl who made great pastels.

_"I still can not believe it and it's been a while_" she had written on her diary, still at the art colony"._ The only thing I remember after I decided to give the world my middle finger and just get over it with Alison already (I needed answers, desperately, and the booze made me way more bi curious than I ever thought I was), was waking up naked on Alison's bed, next to her, and she was also naked. I took my stuff, got dressed and made my first walk of shame. After that it took me a while to decide I seriously had to stop drinking at parties and keep the magic potion that booze was to me as something to drink in private, to numb and to pass out without the danger of doing things I would never do while being sober. First, it was even fun: make out at parties and be too drunk to mind taking off my clothes or not, like back in the old times when that 14 year old me could just sleep with those guys at those communes where my parents used to take me and Trent when we were younger and then later I thought it was fun. Trent didn't like it, but he's always be too... passive, to do anything more than trying to convince me to stop. Then Daria tagged along and it got better, I didn't need to pretend anymore on people's beds. I could have fun with Daria and be myself and it didn't imply having to give her something back for her kindness. But with the Tom thing and then Alison... it just triggered some anxiety, I guess. Repressed anger, or whatever Daria would call it. I just lost a little of control. I have to be honest and say I'm surprised I'm not pregnant. But I learned a lot in the last few years, I know how to take care of myself. I cut all those random guys and girls off the picture, but something made me have to keep the booze. Should I be worried about that?... I don't think so, I'm sounding like Daria. It's no big deal, is it? And, about Daria, she was around here a couple of days ago. She came with the Spiral to see Trent play but I didn't drink that night until she left, I didn't want her freaking out and giving me a speech that maybe would be too Morgendorffer for me to hear_".

_Daria freaking out, huh?_, she thought while recalling the pages of her journal. _Maybe she was right in freaking out._

* * *

That night, for his own surprise, it was hard for Trent to fall asleep. He missed Jane and he missed the times when she would've never said the words 'I' and 'drinking' in a sentence said by his sister.

"Are you okay?" Daria asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay. I just miss Janey".

She sat and hug him.

"I miss her too".

"We should get some sleep, I promised you I'm taking you to that camp where you used to go when you were little, right?".

"Yeah, Camp Grizzly, I can't wait to go back to those wonderful memories of my wasted childhood" she rolled her eyes.

He softly laughed and coughed.

"I missed that" she confessed and kissed him.

"Goodnight, Daria".

"Goodnight, Trent".


	14. That's right, Janey's back

"So, how's Jane going now?" asked Tom.

"She's better now. We made her go through desintoxication and rehabilitation. She didn't like it a lot at first but it's being really helpful. Can you believe her parents still have no idea about it?".

"Uh, it doesn't surprise me" he confessed while taking a sip from his soda ". You know, they don't use to be around much".

"Actually, her mom was around a while ago. She didn't stay for a whole day but, you know, it's something, right?".

Tom got up from the floor and went to sit on the chair in front Daria's computer.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. How is it going with Trent?".

"Actually, it's going better than I thought. Don't ever tell him I told you that, but Trent is really lazy and I thought things really couldn't work out. But everything is so... good. I mean it, Tom, I haven't been this happy in a long time".

"I'm glad to hear that" he said with a smile and he meant it ". Do you think you'll tell Jane we're hanging out?".

"Well, Trent took it well but I don't know how would Jane react. I can always tell her that you are gay to make her be sure that I'm not cheating on Trent with you".

"Or you could tell her about Nicole".

"Right, or that. But the gay story could give me more credibility. We could make Nicole become Nicholas in my version of the story".

"Okay" he laughed ". I'm dating Nicholas, then".

"Isn't Nick dreamy?" she said, faking Quinn's voice.

He laughed even more.

"By the way, if I were you I wouldn't worry about Jane thinking you're going to hurt Trent. I know she has her issues with me and us being friends, but even I, that I don't spend as much time with you as she does, know that you love him a lot".

"Thank you" she smiled while saying that, she found it interesting how lately her face was more expressive than it had been before ". But there's something more important that I want her to believe".

"And what is that?".

"After all we've been through" she started while looking at a Sick, Sad World ad on the muted T.V. ", I just really hope she understands how much I love her. You know it isn't something easy for me to say, but I hope my actions made my point clear enough".

"If I got to know Jane well enough during the time we dated, I can be sure about something, and it's that she knows it. She knew it even before all these things happened. Don't ever doubt that she feels the same".

Her eyes got a little watery and then her smile became a laughter.

"Hey, did you ever get to see this tattoo Jane has on her...?".

"Oh, the one she has on her right..." he interrupted.

"So you did see it?" she interrupted too.

They both laughed until the door suddenly opened. Jane Lane, with a smirk, stared at the two teenagers that were inside of the room.

"If you're talking about my tattoo I'll kill both of you".

"Oh... hi, Jane" Tom hesitated.

Jane saw the scared expressions from her friends' faces and laughed.

"Don't freak out, amiga. Trent told me you were hanging out with Tom a couple days ago while I was still at the clinic. I got off today and I'm sober" she said that with an especially wide smile ". I'm going back to school next week. Penny's gonna be pissed when she comes back" she laughed ". My lovely brother threw all the alcohol down the toilet, but hey, it's for the better, right? So, Tom, nice to see you again".

Tom and Daria's faces showed shock. Tom wasn't expecting to see Jane any time soon and Daria wasn't expecting to have Jane visiting her that night at all.

"Hello?" Jane raised an eyebrow ". Hey, I'm not skeletal thin or ghost pale anymore, am I?".

"Uh... we... I wasn't expecting you to be out of the clinic until next week. Don't get me wrong, I'm really happy to see you, it's just..." but Daria was interrupted.

"Weird? C'mon, you guys, I just got out of the clinic. Don't you wanna go to the movies to celebrate or something? Alcohol-free celebration? Pizza and Sick, Sad World marathon?".

Daria and Tom looked at each other. "What the hell?" Their glances said. They got up and Daria got close to Jane to hug her.

"I'm glad you're back" Daria said.

"I'm glad too, amiga" she replied while hugging Daria back" . It wasn't easy, I told you it was hell. God, I even thought about just running away. But I would have missed you and Trent. I would've even missed you, you sweet dumb ex-boyfriend" she smiled at Tom and he smiled back.

"So, are you coming?" The two girls asked looking at Tom.

He smiled and followed Jane and Daria, confused but happy enough not to really care about it.


End file.
